"That's just it--it was my fault, it was," she interrupted passionately, and somehow her hand found mine and pressed it. Was there ever any one more square? "I knew we were going to--do that, and I didn't try to stop it. You'll think that I'm--I'm----" "The most glorious girl who ever lived," I cried, taking full possession of her hand now. "Won't you please be honest?" she asked, quite seriously. "I am; and I give you my word I'd never have done it if it hadn't seemed so real--I mean, our planting the memory." She turned then, and to my relief she was half smiling. For an instant the longing to hold her again showed in my face, but she stopped me with a look. This time it was done with the intention of stopping me, and I stopped. Yet the smile had not left her face as she said, in a tone of sweet confidence: "Let's be above-the-board-honest with each other in all things, Jack; it makes for long friendships, Echochee says--and there's nothing finer, anyhow, than to freely admit a mistake. So it wasn't your fault any more than mine; we've both been very naughty spirits, and we mustn't be again." She paused, adding: "After all, I suppose it does make our secret world just a little----" I waited, and when she did not continue, asked: "A little what?" Still she hesitated. "Be honest," I warned. She smiled again, looking at me frankly. "Well, a little sweeter, to feel that we're equally to blame; that that's why we can't ever go there again." "Eden up-to-date?" I laughed. "Y-yes, I suppose so; and the flaming sword has smote us, so we have to be circumspect forever and ever." "But Eve wasn't! The flaming sword didn't phaze her a minute!" "I've had lots of time to improve on Eve," she replied archly. "That's God's truth," I cried. A rippling laugh burst from her lips--a ringing, happy laugh that was heard, I swear, in listening heaven. She seemed obsessed by a strange excitement--perhaps like my own, that sprang from a deep, inordinate sense of pleasure. We were getting on toward the fort, walking inside the edge of our Oasis near that place where the fallen palms lay in a confused tangle. I had her hand and was helping her over this network of logs when she suddenly sprang before me with dazzling quickness; facing outward, and holding back her arms to keep me in check. It was an act instinctive of protection, yet scarcely had I time to wonder at it when a whining, crackling sound, that might have come from anywhere, dashed past our heads. Men who have heard a high-power bullet splitting the air do not forget the sound, which is as quickly recognized a second time as the rattling of a diamond-back. Immediately following it came the crack of a rifle, and guided by this I saw, above the prairie grass four hundred yards away, the head and shoulders of a man. At that instant he fired again. CHAPTER XXII I LOVE YOU